Better than any of the feature film versions of John le Carre's novels and nearly as good as the TV mini-series based on Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People.
The Good Shepherd (2006)
Rated: 15
Runtime: 2 hrs 48 mins
Theatrical Release: 23-02-2007
Synopsis: With THE GOOD SHEPHERD, Robert De Niro (A BRONX TALE) makes an ambitious return to the director's chair. A labor of love for Oscar-winning screenwriter Eric Roth (FORREST GUMP), the film tells an epic, fictionalized account of how the Central Intelligence Agency was born. Matt Damon plays... With THE GOOD SHEPHERD, Robert De Niro (A BRONX TALE) makes an ambitious return to the director's chair. A labor of love for Oscar-winning screenwriter Eric Roth (FORREST GUMP), the film tells an epic, fictionalized account of how the Central Intelligence Agency was born. Matt Damon plays Edward Wilson, a reserved young man who graduated from Yale in the late 1930s. His membership in the exclusive, hidden Skull and Bones society led him away from poetry and into a relationship with the federal government, who recruited him to help them on several covert operations. Roth's script alternates between Wilson's gradual emergence as a genuine government operative in the early 1940s and the infamous Bay of Pigs conflict in the early 1960s. Along the way, he has a sweet romance with a pretty deaf girl (a sparkling Tammy Blanchard) and ends up marrying the woman he impregnates (Angelina Jolie) out of a strong sense of duty. Throughout the film, the emergence of a mysterious tape haunts Wilson, who is determined to uncover the truth behind a leak in his secret organization. Production designer Jeannine Claudia Oppewall (L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN) and costume designer Ann Roth (THE ENGLISH PATIENT, THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY) faithfully recreate these earlier periods in American history, while the imagery of Oscar-winning cinematographer Robert Richardson (J.F.K., THE AVIATOR) casts a warm, stately glow upon De Niro's assembled cast of luminaries (including Alec Baldwin, Michael Gambon, William Hurt, Billy Crudup, and Joe Pesci). The result is a production that recalls Francis Ford Coppola's THE CONVERSATION and Steven Spielberg's MUNICH. [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, Joe Pesci, John Turturro, Alec Baldwin
DVD Info
Release:
Jan 6, 2008
DVD Features:
- Region 1
- Snap Case
- Anamorphic Widescreen - 2.40
- Single Side - Dual Layer
Audio:
- Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround - English, French
- Subtitles - English (SDH), French, Spanish - Optional
Additional Release Material:
- Alternate Scenes - Deleted Scenes
DVD-ROM:
- Weblink - Consumer Offer to Download a Free Movie Ticket ($7.50 Value).
Reviews
Not a film everyone will like. But those who do will appreciate De Niro's insistence on accurate detail.
165 minutes of my life I will never get back, damn it. This is one shepherd that’s lost control of its flock.
De Niro deserves credit for the broad, ambitious canvas he's worked on, but his movie is just as mechanical and humourless as his protagonist.
On paper this had “belter” written all over it. Sadly, Damon’s lifeless performance in the lead role failed to keep me gripped throughout the movie’s bum-numbing 167 minutes.
Touches are just enough to earn The Good Shepherd a third star. But De Niro might want to stick to acting in future.
A wan, muted film that is never less than interesting, but rarely more than that either.
It's well built but the Matt Damon character remains blank and too young to be convincing. It's solid, but like Damon himself it's a bit dull.
A very dark, murky film, resentfully critical of the dysfunctional CIA family.
Damon's shirts are always crisp, but he has the charisma of a perfectly groomed corpse.
A serious film about a seriously relevant subject that, despite its flaws, fulfils much of its over-reaching ambition.
De Niro's second film features terrific performances and several impressive scenes, but he appears to have forgotten to hire an editor.
Well-crafted and well-acted, but ever-so-slightly worthy and strangely unaffecting. Given the track record of the CIA, it probably ought to be angrier.
Intelligent, yes, politically astute, stuffed to the gills with A-list acting talent (overstuffed in fact, there are cameos a go-go), but too frozen with a sense of its own seriousness to grip.
The film’s watchable enough if you’re indulgent of its flaws but at 167 minutes it does tax the patience.
Overlong and a little overstuffed, but De Niro’s ambitious tale of the CIA’s Cold War genesis is still worthy, smart and relevant.
This expertly made film is fascinating and gripping. And it's also so long that it feels like an entire TV series on DVD.
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